North Langley’s 31-year-old Neighbourhood Art Studios, started by a local entrepreneur, Robert Barrett, in 1991, now has a new owner and location.
The decades-old business was sold earlier this month, but finding someone who could carry the legacy of Barrett – fondly known as Bob – wasn’t easy. In fact, it took Barret more than two years to find a worthy person and pass the baton.
His quest started in 2020 when he decided to retire. During this time, he received offers from China, India, and all over the world – even local entrepreneurs showed interest, but “not one of them was anywhere near capable of doing what has to be done in taking over this studio.”
“It’s going to take someone with love, someone with the love of art, someone with the love of children and adults, and, of course, someone with the love of God that’s going to take it to the next 31 years,” he explained.
“We have a great legacy as our studio has served a lot of people,” he added.
After two years of waiting, the much-awaited moment came, and his search ended when one of Barrett’s own approached him – Marguerite Bouchard, a former student and local artist.
Bouchard had everything Barrett was looking for in an artist and entrepreneur. The decision was finally made, but since the lease was up, the two agreed to move the studio from Walnut Grove to Willoughby.
In a private ceremony at Willoughby Town Centre, Barrett handed Bouchard a big artists’ paintbrush to symbolize the transfer of the studio’s leadership mantle.
The facility now has a new name – Epiphany Neighbourhood Art Studios
When deciding what to call her new venture, Bouchard recalled that Epiphany 2020 was the title of her last exhibit of 20 paintings. She knew in that ‘aha’ moment that Epiphany was an ideal name for the art school.
“The word epiphany suggests awakening, revelation, and discovery, which can happen while creating art and viewing others’ art. In both instances, deep connections can be made and give life more meaning.”
Bouchard thanked Barrett for trusting her to take the art school to the next level and to make lessons accessible to many more people of all ages throughout the local area for decades to come.
“Like Bob, I want to share my passion for art with the community. I’m thrilled to be in this location, right in the heart of Willoughby, with hundreds of families around here. I look forward to serving generations to come and drawing people to a place where they can access their own soul, their own Maker, be inspired, make great creations and enjoy health. We all need mental health, spiritual health, and physical health, and we are going to thrive,” she said.
The new art school will continue Neighbourhood Art Studio’s legacy of teaching classical art techniques and post-secondary portfolio preparation and will also offer diverse visual art courses, such as 3D collage, as well as special events like paint nights and birthday parties.
Classical drawing and painting classes, as well as a variety of specialty courses, will be offered for students of all ages for eight weeks starting on October 24th.
For more details, people can visit theartschool.com or email Marguerite Bouchard at hello@theartschool.com or call 604-455-0344. The new art space is located at #215, Willoughby Professional Building, 20780 Willoughby Town Centre Drive, Langley.
Robert Barrett handed Marguerite Bouchard a big artists’ paintbrush to symbolize the transfer of the studio’s leadership mantle. (Special to Langley Advance Times)
Marguerite Bouchard purchased the 31-year-old business from Langley’s longtime entrepreneur Robert Barrett. (Special to Langley Advance Times)
Some of Marguerite’s family members: husband Shawn, Evan, Rachel, Dave Smith, Shawn, Marguerite, Andrew, and Sophie. (Special to Langley Advance Times)
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
